AMOR AOMORI

 Would you take me on a walk to your favorite place?”

Béatrice DIDIER began her residency in Aomori by posing this question to local residents.

“Could you write down a few words on this leaf? I’ll write my own message on another leaf. Then we’ll exchange them.”
This suggestion to the four participants who collaborated on Didier’s project allowed the five of them to share with each other the things they noticed and felt during their walks together around Aomori.

The leaves exchanged between Didier and the four participants are displayed in pairs, with each pair corresponding to one of the four drawings of their respective walking routes, traced on the gallery floor. In the space opposite, across from short poems that Didier composed daily during her residency, video recordings are displayed along with the typewriter she used. Throughout her 15-plus-year career as a performance artist, the Brussels-based Didier has consistently utilized her own body and its experiences as important materials in her artistic creations. The pieces shown here can be thought of as the traces of her experience in Aomori, an experience that revisited the everyday act of “walking.” Each of these traces is organically connected, and together form an image which serves as a more tactile record through which we can vicariously experience the thoughts that passed through Didier’s walking body. (Tomo Setou, ACAC)

photos@Béatrice Didier and ACAC

This installation was created in the context of the project Spinning Scapes at ACAC, 

under the patronage of the Belgian Embassy in Japan. 

With my deep gratitude to all participants and the team of ACAC

Into Your Life, rue de Lambrechies

 Le 29 mai 2024, de 15h20 à 16h00, des feuilles de lierres ont été cueillies sur l'ancien site de charbonnages non loin du fief de Lambrechies.

Le 2 juin 2024, de 16h40 à 17h40, dans les ruines de ce site (que certain.e.s nomment déchetterie), onté tapés à la machiné les noms des victimes du Fief de Lambrechies, décédées les 15 et 17 mai 1934.

Sur le chemin de retour une photo de la stèle a été accrochée au grillage de la concession du Fief de Lambrechies.

Cette action a été réalisée pour l'installation "En mémoire de...", présentée pour la soirée de rencontre à Frameries dans le cadre de la résidence à la Fabrique de Théâtre

 

Action @ Béatrice Didier           Vidéo @ Luis Alvarez

Into Your Life, Marché de Frameries

 Le 1° juin 2024, de 11h00 à 12h00, quelques feuilles de lierre contenant le nom des victimes de la catastrophe du 16 décembre 1875 onté été offertes aux passant.e.s sur le marché.

Cette action a eu lieu dans le cadre de la résidence à la Fabrique de Théâtre, ayant donné lieu à une installation lors de la soirée de rencontre à Frameries le 6 juin 2024.

Action @ Béatrice Didier Vidéo @Luis Alvarez

Walking, residency at Château de Monthelon

 

1972-1973: Learning to walk 

1978-1989: Walking,as daily vacation duty 

2001: “She wanted to walk to Tierra del Fuego” (in “The Four Deaths of Marie” by Carole Fréchette)  

2009-2011: Walking in cities with the question "Would you like to take me into your arms?"  

2014: Walking from the Maunthausen camp to the Atelierhaus Salzamt in Linz, carrying 30 kg of salt and repeating the "Song of Hope" by Jean Cayrol 2019: Walk collecting waste in the streets and parks of Cologne Walk in the footsteps of the 

1988 Yangoon protest by writing on tree leaves: DOE A YAE  

2021: Walking in the Monthelon garden in the footsteps of the reconstruction of the sound walk created by Mathieu Richelle  

2023: Walking on the bank that connects the city of Ishinomaki to the Pacific Ocean. Peaceful? 

           Walking through the Kunstpavillon Burgbrohl area with this question: 

            "In which world do we  want  to live in 2024?" 

2024: Going to Monthelon for a residency on walkability and fall down a stone staircase. To walk. Being unable from walking. So walking through the books of David the Breton and the thoughts of Thoreau. Imagine walking. Imagine walking through windows. Walking without touching the ground. Walking on the flooded waters of Isles sur Serein. Walking through roofs, grass. Walking to the tree or to Montreal. Walking up to the sky. Walking until you disappear into the landscape.....

 

  Photos © Beatrice Didier & Luis Alvarez